They had said rain today, but the storms got here early. It rained last night and the clouds are broken today with shreds of blue behind.   It is not that way with Ike slamming over Galveston, where my cousin’s place is now under water.   Here, it is gentle. There may be some T-storms […]

It is The Day, of course.   The memory of it comes and goes, but it is always lurking I always think about it as I fill up the Hubrismobile with high-test at the Quarters K gas station. I can’t help it. It is right there in front of you, even if the Pentagon’s façade […]

A shipmate recently reported on how construction is going on construction of the new JICCENT intelligence facility at McDill AFB in Tampa, Florida. The structure’s official name is the “LCDR Otis Vincent Tolbert Joint Intelligence Operations Center,” but to those who know and honor the memory of our fallen comrade, it is already known as […]

Speechless I got way sidetracked this morning and there is no likelihood of a story emanating from Big Pink this morning.  The lay-out people at the Quarterly say they need a table of contents for the Fall issue, and a filler article to cove page 47. I can do that, I think, and have located the necessary […]

George Bailey Confronts a Run of the Bank   A friend wrote me to ask my thoughts about the colossal take-over of the US mortgage market by the Federal Government that is going to be announced today. He is just getting out of college, and he may not fully realize what our generation has done […]

  Ruby Slippers I got up antsy. Must be the pressure change with the storm coming on, gripping like the cold green fingers of the Wicked Witch. Maybe it is something primordial that connects us to the burrowing mammals and the birds, the urge to seek shelter against something you can sense but not see. […]

Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick with his wife Calrita Yesterday (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)   I was doing something else when the word came over the clock-radio on my desk high over North Glebe Road. The sound quality is kind of crappy, but I had been informed that listening to the radio on the Internet could be grounds […]

The storms are supposed to get here as soon as tomorrow. They say we ought to be expecting high winds and water. I don’t know what that is going to do to the pool, but I have a reasonable idea.   The people on the radio are recommending extra batteries, canned goods and diapers. I […]

  The flyer I have been waiting for showed up in the box yesterday. I knew what was in it, though not the details. I let it sit on the counter and went out on the balcony, marveling at the smooth working of the back door. It had been an excellent investment, having John the […]

  I have always had an open door policy.   Not by choice. Most of my professional life I worked in open-bay environments, on ships and ashore, almost always in vaults of one size or another.   I had a postage-stamp sized office in the Pentagon one time, so small and so far buried in […]